The Best Picture winner that was the first Western feature film authorized to shoot inside Beijing’s Forbidden City is The Last Emperor.
Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 historical epic dramatizes the life of Puyi, who became China’s last emperor as an infant in 1908. John Lone plays the adult Puyi, while the story follows his childhood in the imperial court, his brief restoration, imprisonment by the Soviet Union, and later political rehabilitation under the People’s Republic of China.
The production received permission to film inside the Forbidden City, an extraordinary access agreement that made the movie the first Western feature authorized by the Chinese government to shoot there. The location appears prominently during the film’s opening section, helping recreate the restricted world of the imperial court. The production also used thousands of extras, including members of the People’s Liberation Army.
At the 60th Academy Awards, The Last Emperor won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. It is sometimes confused with Gandhi or Out of Africa because all are historical Best Picture winners, but neither had this Forbidden City distinction.